Death's Doorstep
by Ogrewolf
Summary: A P.O.W. tries to get his freedom back from his captores. But that is not as simple as it may sound...


Death's doorstep 

**By Ogrewolf**

11-28-3065 13:30 hours

Capellan Confederation

Planet of Olbeurd

Capitol city of New Norsdeall

Military H.Q. ( Interogation room )

"**_Who are you?"_** a voice yelled at me.

I can't see who he is because i have a dark hood over my head. Then suddenly the voice returns ....

"**_What is you're unit?" _**he asks me in a angry tone. "_Guess he's getting tired of my silence"_ i think to my self. Then suddenly a sharp pain and the sudden loss of the ability to breath air in to my lungs, tels me i have been punced in my stomache.

"_Nasty left hook you have there" _i tell hem but otherwise i stay sillent_."You will never know what i know my friend" i think to my self with a little smile on my face. _

Then i hear the door opening and another voice say's: "L.T. the commander wishes to speak to you"

"I'll be there in 5 minutes" The first voice say's.

After giving me another punch to the head he leaves. Ever since i got captured i havend seen daylight and i have been tortured regularly.

After a couple of secondes i start to contemplate, about how i got here and my situation at the moment and of course my future.

This all started when my mercenary unit called "Hell's raiders" got hired by the Federated Suns to do a small raid on the Capellan planet of Olbeurd.

Our commander was orderd to find out the strength of the Capellan forces stationd there,

and had decided to send me and my lance on a recon run while the commander and the command lance tried to draw away the bulk of the enemy forces.

The recon lance pilotes were

: J.P. "Ogrewolf" Mendel – Lance leader ( being me) piloting a Bushwacker

: Mark "Q-Ball" Groere – seconde in command piloting a Wolfhound

: Hank "Sword" DeFullier piloting a Hollander

:Mike "Speedy" Musteras piloting a Uller

We were almost at oure objective when suddenly Speedy reported in.

"_Ogrewolf, i have some faint radar contacts, but i cant get a lock on it_"

"_Roger Speedy, you go ahead and try to find out what it is, but stay close incase of trouble_" i replied.

Thats when all hell broke lose, radar contacts started to pop-up all around us and enemy weapons were firing at us. In the blink of an eye i saw Sword's Hollander go down, missing it's right leg. I did'nt see him eject so he must have been knockt out by the crash.

"_Fire at will and fall back to NAV gamma"_ I yelled into my neurohelmet's built-in headset

and stompt down on both pedales igniting my jump jets.

What i saw was enough to make my body shivver,: 12 enemy mech's all medium class or higher. I even saw a Atlas in the procces of blasting a round of it's massive AC20 into Q-Ball's Wolfhound. I saw him eject only secondes before the reactor whent nova.

"_Incomming baldy"_ i thought to myself as i blasted a round of my LB-10X-AC into the cockpit of the Atlas, closely followed by my ER large laser. The armor that was still holding the big mech's cockpit together, exploded away, killing the pilot in an instant.

Then suddenly my mech was blasted from the sky by a rain of LRM's. My mech crashed to the ground and i lost conciusnes.

When i woke up i had no idea what time of day it was let alone WHAT day it was, but i was in the same chair i am sitting in right now with the same hood on that's still on my head, keeping me from seeing my interogator and my hand's tied to the chair, to keep me from pulling the hood of and chocking the life out of that Capellan L.T. So i started to get my hands free from the ropes that tide me to the chair.

That's when it came to me.... A little thougt that made my head spin and that forced me to reevaluate my position: "L.T." is'nt a Capellan rank!.

Now i was thinking about it, the mech's that attacked us did'nt wear any of the Capellan paint job's i knew off.

They were painted in a cammo sceme i have never seen befor.

"_What did this mean? What was to become of me_?" Questions raced through my mind, desperate to find an answer.

Thats when the door opend again. "_Whell it seems you are still being reluctand to answer the questions that are asked to you"_ A strange voice said. Altough i did'nt know who he was, i could hear a tone of authority in his voice, a tone that gave him a the feel of a high ranking officer.

"_And who might you be??"_ i asked him, not expecting him to answer, but maybe i could goat him into giving me some more information about where i was or what unit was holding me.

"_I am the man that holds you're life in his hands and if you want to keep living you better be answering my questions"_ He replied in a tone as cold as ice.

"_Whell no chance of getting more info from him_" i thought to myself.

"Taking this hood of my head might make me more coöperative" I said.

The sound of a side-arm being loaded sounded like a thunderclap in the small room, sending chills down my spine.

"Guess not" I thought.

"_Who are you?"_ He asked me when the door opend and another person enterd the room, but said nothing. When i did'nt answer, the first voice started again.

"_What's you're unit" _ He said with a little anger in his voice.

Again i did'nt answer and suddenly i could hear a chair being pickt-up and a seconde later it smashed into the wall to my right. Then i could feel the cold steel of the side-arm in the back of my neck.

"**_For the last time, Who are you and whats you're unit"_** he yelled at me.

At this time i almost had one hand free so if i could keep him from shooting me, maybe i would get a chance to get out of here if i could buy some time to get my hand's free and escape.

"_J.P. "Ogrewolf" Mendel, Lance leader I.D. nr. 3169360" _I replied, and the gun was taken away from my head.

The first voice got back to his chair and sat down.

"_Atlast we are getting somewhere"_ he said

Then i heard some whispers and the second person left the room to check my answer.

"_You are not the only one of you're unit to be held captive here you know" _The first voice said. _"It will only be a matter of time before one of you desides to coöperate with me" _

Thats when i heard him stepping closer to me and with a little tug he pulled the hood from my head.

"_You see, if you answer my questions you will be rewarded"_ he said as my eyes were getting reajusted to the bright light in the room.

When they were ajusted i could see a man in his late thirties with slightly greying hear, about 80kilo's standing about 1.90 meter's tall wearing a Free Worlds League military uniform.

"_What's the FWL doing in the Capellan Confederation" _I asked him.

"_The same as you i guess"_ Was his short reply.

"_Where are my lance mates?"_ I knew i was pressing my luck but i had to know.

"_In the next room. One has a broken arm, the other has a big bump on his head but he will be fine"_ He said with a small smile on his face.

"_What happend to the last one?"_ i asked.

"_Dead"_ He said while he slowly walked to the door "_Did'nt eject when his mech whent critical"_ With that said he left the room.

After a couple of minutes i managed to get one hand free from the ropes and started to work on my other hand.

Luckily that did'nt take long and i decided to stand close to the door. _"When he returns i will ring his neck and get the others out. From there we will have to see what happens"_ I thought to myself.

As if i hade planed it, he walked into the room and was startled when i jumped on him and started to squeez the air out of him. I don't know if i will ever forget his face, as first it started to become red, than purple and finaly ash grey, than he was dead.

I got the key's to the door from his pocket and opend the door, carfully looking into the hallway, i saw only one guard standing 2 meters away.

Quickly i whent back into my "room" and retrived the Needler from my now dead interogator.

Once more i looked into the hallway and the guard was still standing at the door of the next room.

"_That must be the room where my lancemates are being held"_ I thought and took aim.

Just as i squeezed the trigher, the guard turned around and looked at me with a look of compeet and total horror on his face as he realised that he was going to die.

That moment the Needler seemed to slightly jumped in my hand and the guards face just seemed to explode into a fine red mist with small red chunks flighing into the wall behind him.

The now headles body started to fall to the floor and i was already at the door. With a small thump the body hit the floor as i turned the key and opened the door.

When i steped into the room i could see my lancemates tied to two chairs, when movement to my right informed me that there was a guard in the room to.

Spinning on my left foot i quickly brought the Needler up and squeesed another cloud of plastic shardes in his direction. He got hit high in the center of his torso, puncturing not only both his lungs but also his hart but not before he got a shot of with an old looking slug thrower. The gun was aimed low so the bullet smashed it's way into my left leg, wich i was still ballancing on cousing me to fall to the floor.

Pain ripped through my leg but quickly subsided when the adrenaline kickt in blocking it out.

As quick as i could i tried to get up, wich turned out to be harder than i thought, but i managed to stumble my way to my two friends who were awake now because of the loud noises around them.

I took the hood's of they're head's and started to work on the ropes.

When i took a good look at them i hardly recognised them.

"_They must have tortured them even more than me"_ I thought as i looked at the faces before me.

"_Q-Ball!, Sword! You guy's look like death warmed over" _I said with a large grin on my face.

"_You don't look to hot you're self Ogre.". _Q-Ball replied.

"_Damned you're shot!"_ Sword added.

"_You alway's did have a nack for stating the obvius Sword"_ Was my reply as i tried to rip a small piece of my shirt to use as a makeshift bandage.

After dragging the headless corpse of the first guard inside we started to make a plan of escape.

"_The way i see it we have to get out of here and back to the dropship"_ I stated

"_How are we going to do that?"_ Q-Ball said with a little doupt in his voice.

"_We have to get to the mech hanger or the tank bay, and get some form of transport"_ Sword said with a determined look.

"_Yep. Thats oure only way out"_ I said while handing them the weapons from the now dead guards.

After checking the hallway again we started to move towards the mechbay wich was acomplished by following the markers on the walls. Luckily we did'nt encounter any guards,

And when we got there we desided to look for the fast response mech's.

These are mech's that are already powerd up so they can attack an incomming enemy force and defend the base while the other mech's are still getting powerd up.

After a quick search we found them and climbed in.

I was now piloting a Centurion (the 55 ton model).

Q-Ball piloted a Crab and Sword piloted a Hunchback.

After strapping in i put on the neurohelmet, and was rewarded with a feeling of vertigo because the helmet was out of sink for my brainwaves.

After spending 3 minutes to reconfigure the neurohelmet it was'nt as bad as it was, but it still was'nt perfect.

"_Close enough, this will have to do"_ I thought and saw that Q-Ball and Sword were ready to.

"_Ok people lets get out of here" _I said after changing to a secure comm. frequentie.

In one fluid motion 155 ton's of battlemech's moved towards the mechbay doors.

"_Q-Ball blast the doors"_ I orderd and mashed down on the trigger for the AC 10 in the Centurion's right arm.

"_Roger that Ogrewolf. It feels good to be back in a mech"_ he replied while firing the two large lasers in the Crab.

That blast was to mutch for the old doors and they flow out crashing into a turret control tower. As the turret control tower fell apart i got an idea.

"_Q-Ball, Sword capture the other turret control towers A.S.A.P."_ I said into the comm.

Two roger's later they were on there way, and 10 minutes later we had captured all of them.

Just as Sword captured the last tower a small Stinger ran up to the gates of the base.

The small mech never knew what hit it as the turrets started to fire LRM's and laser's at it.

The massive amount of weapons fire directed at it was to much for the pilot and he ejected.

"_Sword you take out the mechhanger, Q-Ball you capture the gate control building. I'm going to blast the H.Q. to bits."_ I said and moved my new mech towardes the enemy H.Q. building when i fired of an Alpha strike.

First the two medium lasers conected with the building, then came the AC 10 and last but not least the missiles from my LRM 5. Big holes started to form where the LRM's hit while the scars on the H.Q. from my two medium lasers were still smoking.

After my AC10 reloaded i fired it at the center of the building cousing massive damage to the building's internal structure.

Then a large **KLONK** informed me that a new load of LRM's had been loaded into the rack.

With a little smile i fired them and watched them spiral towards the aready heavely damaged building.

When they impacted the explosions were to much for the building and it collapsed with a ear piercing **Scrieeek**.

At that same time a large explosion to my left got my atention and i watched with grim satisvaction as the mechbay whent up in a big fireball.

"_The gates are oure's Ogrewolf"_ I heard Q-Ball say in my headset.

"_Allright team lets get out of here"_ i said and turned my mech towards the gates.

12-07-3065 10:15 hours

Capellan Confederation

Planet of Olbeurd

Just outside of the Capitol city of New Norsdeall

Aboard Dropship "Fire Crawler"

"_And thats when i decided to radio for pick-up Sir"._ I said to my commander who was sitting on the other end of the small table in the debriefing room.

"_Incredeble J.P. You guy's dissapear for nine day's and when you return you bring back enough intel for oure employers. To bad what happend to Speedy though, my condoleances J.P. Now get some rest, you've deseved it."_ Was his reply.

"_Whell J.P. we got out of this one by the skin on oure teeth"_ Q-Ball said when i steped out the door.

"_Yes Q-Ball, we were on Death's doorstep this time, but we pulled through"_ i said with sadness in my voice _"Now all i have to do is to get ready for Speedy's funeral"_ .

After 30 minutes all were pressent at the funeral, all dressed in black suit's.

The coffen was empty because there was nothing left of Speedy after his mech whent critical, but all remembered the man. Personaly i did'nt knew him that whell but Q-Ball was a close friend and i could see it hurt him bad.

After the small funeral the dropship got ready for lift-off and as the massive engines roard i could'nt help but wonder what life had in store for us next.

01-09-3066 14:45 hours

Planet of Outreach

Aboard Dropship "Fire Crawler

"_Get those mech's unloaded and get every thing ready for some R&R people. I want to get out of here as much as you do!" _The headtech yelled at the tech's that were unloading my "new" Centurion.

The Commander hade informed me that he was going to sell it and was going to get me a bigger mech. What he hade in mind was everybody's gues.

Anyway i hade some R&R on my hand's and i was going to spend every moment the best way i could, by drinking, gambling and maybe even a little bit of training.

"_Let's start by finding a good bar"_ Q-Ball said as if he could read my mind.

"_I'll be over at the simulator's"_ Sword said while walking towards a large arcade hall, wich was well known for it's realistic mechsimulatorpod's

"_See ya"_ Was all that Q-Ball said _"Come on Ogrewolf i know a exelent pub that selles some **real **drink's"_ What he ment by "real" was anybody's gues, but i knew it had to do with some heavy liquer. _"Just what the doctor orderd Q-Ball"_ i said smilling already knowing i was going to regret this desicion tomorow.

After a short walk we enterd a pub that was filled with thick cloud's of smoke and the smell of bear. _"My kind of bar"_ I said to Q-Ball with a big smile.

"_Thought you would like it"_ Was his reply.

After some drinks i was standing infront of an old pinnball game when something that reflected of the scoreboard got my atention.

"_What the helll?......"_ I thought and quickly turned around.

"_Whoa J.P. what's the rush?"_ Q-Ball asked. _"You look like you saw a ghost my friend"_

"_Sorry Q-Ball i just thought i saw Speedy walking around"_ I said not believing my own words.

"_Get over it Ogre, he's dead remember?"_ He said with a little hint of sadness in his voice.

"_Sorry to have brought it up Q-Ball, i know you two where close friends"_ I appolagised knowing that the subject hade brought back some painfull memories.

I knew it hurt Q-Ball to talk about it.

"_I gues i'm even more tired than i knew. Now i'm starting to see things"_ I said while shaking my head to get some smoke out of my eyes.

"_That or you hade one to many bears my man"_ He replied.

"_Anyway it's better i'd get some sleep"_ I said and started to walk away.

"_J.P., dont worry about it"_ I heard Q-Ball say, followed by a whispered _"I miss him to"_.

When i got to my hotel room first thing i did was to take a long, hot shower, and after that i got into bed and fell asleep.

The next morning i decided to get some of the extra energy out of my system by doing some hand to hand combat training. Ever since i joined-up with the Hell's Raiders i was taking Karate leasons and i was getting pretty good at it to. Whell i would'nt last long against a master but i knew enough to keep me alive in hand to hand combat.

"_Sir, Private Johansen reporting for duty Sir"_ I heard a female voice behind me say

"_Relax Private, we are having some R&R, and i dont want to hear that military crudstunk untill i'm on duty. Am i making myself clear?"_ I said and turned around to see who was talking to me, when i saw this vission of a woman standing infront of me.

"_Whell if you put it like that"_ She replied _"Darla Johansen, nice to finaly meet you. I'm you're new lancemate"_

"_J.P. Mendel"_ i said and shook her hand _"But everybody calls me Ogrewolf or Ogre for short"_ .

"_Ogre you ready for youre training?"_ Sword said while putting his gloves on, When he looked up and saw Darla a small "Whoa" escaped from his mouth, and he just stood there looking at her.

"Darla Johansen, this is Hank DeFullier, but everybody calls him Sword" I said and introduced them to each other. 

"_Sword"_ i whisperd in his ear "_youre staring at her"_

Sword snapt out of his gaze and moved up to the exercise mat

"_Ready for the training?"_ Q-Ball said when he to finished stairing at Darla.

"_As alway's"_ I replied quickly and got ready

"_Mind if i join you in the training?"_ Darla asked _"I could use the practice"_ .

"_Sure, no problem"_ I said and we started training.

After throwing eachother around for two and a half hours we decided to hit the showers and get something to drink.

After we had finished cleaning oureselfs up we went to the same pub Q-Ball and i hade visited the night before.

"_Nice"_ Darla stated _"Reminds me of a bar i know back on Solaris"_

"_Indeed, it's nice"_ Sword stated and whent to get some drinks.

After a couple of minutes i asked Darla _"What's keeping Sword?"_

"_Don't know, he was right there a minute ago"_ She replied.

Sudenly Sword ran up to us and said:_ "You'll never gues who i thought i saw a couple of minutes ago"_

"_Whell dont keep us in suspence Sword, speak up"_ I said.

"_Speedy. I thought i saw Speedy walking around as if nothing had happend!"_ He whisperd.

"_You to?"_ I said quietly _"I though i saw him last night, but i thought i had a little to much to drink"_

"What are you two talking about?" Darla said "You guys are starting to freak me out you know" 

"_Speedy was the mechwarrior you are replacing in oure lance"_ I explaned to her _"He died on the last mission we were on, we got captured but managed to escape"_

"_Yep, but i could have sworn i saw him walking out of the bar. When i whent after him he just disapeard"._ Sword said a little louder to get over the noise in the bar.

"_I dont like this one bit"_ I said still not shure what to think about it.

After a couple of minutes we got out of the bar and started on the way back to the dropship.

"_This is a real mistery Ogrewolf"_ Sword said _"Wait a second.... We got a tail!"_

"_You meen we are being followed?"_ Darla asked _"Why would anybody follow us?"_

"_No idea why but i got some questions to ask them"_ I said as i was looking in the rearview mirror to see the car that was following us.

"_Sword take the next right turn and see if they are still following us" _I said and looked behind just in time to see a old sedan behind us.

"_Yep, they are still on us Ogre"_ He said.

"_I see them Sword. I'm going to call Q-Ball, maybe he can help us out"_ I replied.

After a quick phonecall with Q-Ball we started to put oure little plan in action.

Sword pulled into a small street and the old sedan followed.

Suddenly a black hovercar speeded out of a side street and blocked the sedan from following us. When the sedan tried to back-up a second black hovercar blocked the only exit and a group of oure infantery men jumped out to aprehend the people in the car.

"_**Get out with youre hand up!!**"_ A big infantery sergeant yelled at the people inside the car.

"_Sword get us to the dropship and we will interogate them there"_ I said as i was losing sight of the last infantery men.

"_You got it Ogre"_ Was his short reply.

After a couple of minutes the men were locked in the dropship's brig and Sword, Q-Ball and i got ready to ask them some questions.

When i opend the door to the interogationroom i almost hade a heartattack

"_**Speedy youre alive!"**_ I yelled and looked at Q-Ball who looked like he saw hell freez over.

"_Yep"_ He said _"I'm still alive"_

"_But,.. But how... Why"_ Q-Ball stutterd still not believing his own eyes.

"_I am Dennis Mc Arthure"_ He answerd _"I'm an undercover agent for the Free Worlds League"_ He said _"You guy's were threttening oure assets at Olbeurd and i was sent to make shure you did'nt finnish youre objectives. Unfortunatly the local commander was an incompetant fool who let you escape, and i was send here to find out how much you knew"_

"_But why risk showing youre self in that bar?"_ I asked.

"_Q-Ball and i hade visetid it once and i was just there to meet someone i know"_ He said _"Unfortunatly you and Q-Ball steped in the pub and i had to get out of there. Thats when you saw me"_

"_And the second time? When Sword saw you"_ I replied

"_That was to get you out of the bar so we could capture and interogate you"_ He stated mater of factly.

After getting some more answers we called the commander and told him what we knew.

"_Damned security is getting sloppy"_ He said _"Dont worry the intel is already in the hands of oure inployers, so you can tell him what you want. Just get that Ratbastard of my ship!"_

"_Yes Sir"_ I said and hung up the phone.

After telling "Dennis" what he wanted to know we send him on his way and lifted the next day.

"_I just hope i wont have to see the likes of him again"_ Sword said to me.

"_I'm hoping the same my friend, i'm hoping the same"_ i shoftly replied.

"_Come on you guy's, the commander is waiting for us in the briefing room to go over oure next mission"_ Q-Ball said closely followd by Darla.

"_Strange"_ Sword said _"One moment youre om death's doorstep and a second later youre on top of the world"_

"_But life goes on"_ I replied _"But life goes on indeed"_.

The End

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